LOONA's former member Chuu wins lawsuit against Blockberry Creative, is now free from agency's contract

The long legal battel between Blockberry Creative and LOONA's former member Chuu comes to an end. The court passed the judgement on Thursday.

On Thursday, the 12th Civil Division of the Seoul Northern District Court ruled in favour of former LOONA member Chuu. Chuu was fighting a legal battle against LOONA's agency Blockberry Creative over her exclusive contract with them. Finally, the court has invalidated Chuu’s exclusive contract with the agency, which was signed originally in December 2017, as per a report of Kbizoom.

Blockberry Creatives will be paying litigation costs to Chuu.

Court rules in favour of Chuu

The Korean news outlet quoted the judge saying, “The exclusive contract concluded between the plaintiff (Chuu) and the defendant (Blockberry) in December 2017 is confirmed to be invalid.” Besides this, the court has also ordered the agency to pay for the litigation costs in the matter as well.

Chuu Vs Blockberry Creative

In March, the court tried to mediate between the K-pop singer and the agency, but reached no agreement. During the recent session, the judge declared that the contract between both parties has no legal effect. Chuu has now complete freedom from the said contact due to the result of the main lawsuit, following the preliminary injunction application.

In January last year, Chuu had filed for a preliminary injunction, seeking suspension of the exclusive contract with Blockberry Creative. She also mentioned issues including income settlement and breach of trust. Her request was accepted by the court, following judgements in her favour for preliminary injunctions to suspend the effectiveness of the contracts.

Chuu's exit from LOONA

In November 2022, BlockBerry Creative announced Chuu’s removal from LOONA, citing ‘violent language and misuse of power’ toward staff as the reasons. This resulted in a huge uproar from fans. Reacting to the agency's claims, Chuu had rubbished them.

The agency had also claimed that Chuu’s actions to sign a new contract with BY4M STUDIO in 2021 were “tampering." They alleged that the singer violated their contract.

This episode resulted in a delay for the group's comeback. It was followed by reports of nine Loona members, HeeJin, HaSeul, YeoJin, Kim Lip, JinSoul, Choerry, Yves, Go Won, and Olivia Hye, reportedly working to suspend their contracts with the agency. As per reports, in January, HeeJin, Kim Lip, JinSoul, and Choerry won the lawsuits against their agency.